2025 Cohort

Meet our 2025 cohort founders.

The ventures that came through Building Our Tech in 2025 — spanning AI tooling, aviation marketplaces, Web3 education, sports tech, EdTech, MedTech, and extended reality.

In her words

What the cohort actually changes

Jena Mehlberg came in running a beauty business and left running it on pipelines, CRMs and AI agents. Her story is the clearest answer to what a cohort is for.

Read her full story

2025

The founders

  • Kimberly Small

    Kimberly Small

    FounderSnap2Case (opens in a new tab)

    A real-time error triage and resolution platform for software environments, powered by AI image recognition that turns screenshots into immediate solutions or IT tickets.

    AI & DevOps
  • Sophia Vazquez

    Sophia Vazquez

    FounderPilotPair (opens in a new tab)

    A flight sharing platform connecting pilots and planes, making hour-building more affordable through shared rentals and expenses.

    Aviation Marketplace
  • Nina Blankenship

    Nina Blankenship

    Co-FounderDeFi All Odds (opens in a new tab)

    An educational tech platform that helps people identify and launch careers in the blockchain and Web3 ecosystem through assessments and learning opportunities.

    Web3 EdTech
  • Lisa Francoeur

    Lisa Francoeur

    Co-FounderDeFi All Odds (opens in a new tab)

    Co-founder of DeFi All Odds, and a BOT Pitch Competition winner.

    Web3 EdTech
  • Brando Caveiro

    Brando Caveiro

    FounderGotGame (opens in a new tab)

    A hybrid sports and video challenge app enabling athletes of all levels to showcase skills, compete for prizes, form teams, and track progress.

    Sports Tech
  • Kelly Shea

    Kelly Shea

    FounderInnovation Station (opens in a new tab)

    An EdTech startup offering immersive, kit-based learning tools that guide children through invention cycles.

    EdTech
  • Daniel Tapia

    Daniel Tapia

    FounderXR Community Library (opens in a new tab)

    A public library for extended-reality apps — an all-in-one web tool for finding, saving, and exploring XR experiences.

    Extended Reality
  • Jena Mehlberg

    Jena Mehlberg

    FounderCatalyst Beauty Group (opens in a new tab)

    Provides beauty professionals with business guidance to scale salons toward six-figure success.

    Business Services
  • Vanessa Saunders

    Vanessa Saunders

    FounderLet's Vent

    An AI-powered, CBT-inspired chatbot supporting mental wellness through structured emotional support.

    Mental Wellness AI
  • Andrea Bardales

    Andrea Bardales

    FounderPured (opens in a new tab)

    A health-tech venture offering fast pathogen detection for water safety.

    MedTech
  • April Young

    April Young

    FounderContracts Are Us (opens in a new tab)

    An intelligent contract and procurement management platform using AI-based solutions for vendor and contract management.

    Enterprise AI
Kelly Shea, founder of Innovation Station, with her Innovation Station Kits

What they went and built

The ventures on this page did not stop at the demo. Kelly Shea’s Innovation Station Kits ship as a real product — one of ten businesses this cohort took from idea to something you can hold.

Apply

Could your venture be next?

The Bridge to Launchpad Incubator and the Launchpad Accelerator take applications on a rolling basis.